Seaflower appeals to Jooste

WALVIS Bay-based Seaflower Pelagic Processing has written a proposal to minister of public enterprises Leon Jooste in an attempt to engage him on the future of 425 of the company’s workers who took up temporary employment with Tunacor last year.

The employees’ contracts expire at the end of March.

AJ Louw, the chairperson of the board of directors of Seaflower Pelagic Processing (SPP), in the proposal says the company wants nothing more than to have workers return to employment at the company.

“I cannot blame them. I forgive them all. They need to survive and have to feed people. They are welcome and are part of our family,” Louw says.

On their return to SPP, the 425 workers, who went to Tunacor after the souring of a fishing quota usage agreement between SPP and the National Fishing Corporation of Namibia (Fishcor), will be joined by employees who never left, as well as an additional 450 new cannery workers, Louw envisages.

He proposes that the minister of fisheries and marine resources use the same terms that were used to allocate fishing quotas to Fishcor in return for the employment of SPP employees at Tunacor.

“We need to focus on them coming back. Why can’t the government give us the same conditions as Tunacor? We can give them salaries immediately for the rest of the year, provided we have a quota,” he said.

The involved employees have been home for the past three months, receiving a monthly salary of N$2 500, a N$500 pension and social security.

Louw also dismissed Tunacor’s figure of 655 SPP employees signed up at the company.

“Only approximately 425 workers accepted the temporary Tunacor offer and were officially handed over by Fishcor directors Milka Mungunda and Ruth Herunga, accompanied by Erongo governor representative Ebben Kalondo,” he said.

According to him, the move to offer the workers temporary employment could only have been in bad faith and in contradiction of existing delegation and cooperation agreements between SPP and Fishcor, duly promulgated and published by the Cabinet.

In his letter to Jooste, Louw also alleged that Jooste and other members of the Cabinet have confirmed that contracts between Fishcor and Africa Selection Trust (AST) Namibia – through which Louw has the majority stake in SPP – are still valid, as no one has cancelled them.

He wants to know if the annual quota of 50 000 tonnes of horse mackerel, which SPP was promised in terms of the agreements, is being reserved.

SPP, in which the state-owned Fishcor is a 40% shareholder, has an agreement with Fishcor for 50 000 tonnes of the government company’s horse mackerel quota to be made available to Seaflower annually for 15 years until the end of 2033.

“What alarms us is that with three different boards at Fishcor and two fisheries ministers our contracts are still not being honoured – despite AST Namibia performing 100% in terms of our contract. Last year we again did not receive 25 000 tonnes of a quota, and this year we have received zero quota to date,” said Louw.

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